4 ways people have found a job with no experience.

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

arrowYes you can get a job with no experience….

I write a lot on how to find a job. I talk a lot on how to find a job. I’ve helped a lot of people find jobs.

Over the past five years I’ve answered thousands of emails to CareerOne’s “Ask Kate” from people desperate to find a job, when they have no experience.

Yet when a friend of mine, James Evangelidis, interviewed me for his blog and asked me: “what’s the the number one thing people should do to to find a job if they have no experience?” I had to stop for a minute. Then I didn’t say “get your resume in order.”

I didn’t say get your resume in order as the number one priority because if you don’t have much experience a snappy resume will only take you so far.

You’ll be competing with hundreds of equally snappy resumes.

You’ll all make claims that sound the same on paper.

So how can you find a job with no experience?

There is no one right answer to how to get a job with no experience.

That’s because there are actually a number of ways to find a job without experience. So I thought a few small case studies might help.

Here are four ways people have found a job without experience.

Case study 1. How an Indian engineering graduate found a job with no experience.

One client of mine was an engineering graduate.

He had solid marks and some university work experience with one of Australia’s biggest miners. However he was  older than other graduates. He’d completed his masters and had a few years work experience in India. I suspected he wasn’t having much luck as his background didn’t quite fit the bill of “typical graduate.”

He went door knocking. He picked a light industrial area, where there were small to medium sized businesses and where he knew that if he dropped in his resume to the receptionist, he was one level away from the owner. So he knew his resume would make it into the right hands. He found his first job as a draftsperson this way.

Case study 2. How a public servant found a job in HR with no experience.

Another client of mine had a long career in the public sector, then she went overseas.

She wanted to work in HR but had trouble convincing anyone that her public sector skills were transferable. Plus she felt that she was being labeled as someone from the “public sector.”

She was sun baking at the beach one day and started to chat to the people next to her about what she had done. It turns out that they needed an HR Manager. The next week they interviewed her.

Case study 3. How someone who had a long break from the work force found a job with no experience.

A third client came to me a year ago.

She had had a long break from the workforce and spent a large part of that helping her child who had a disability. Her English was poor.

She was lacking in confidence, plus she wanted to work in accounting. This is a really tough ask without any experience.

This client volunteered in a tax agent’s office, joined a few social groups and read heaps of English books. One year later she came back to see me. We then put the volunteer work on her resume as a “real job” and the tax agent gave her a glowing reference.

She applied for two professional public sector roles and was offered both.

Case study 4. If you have no experience tell people you are looking for a job.

James and I interviewed 25 Australian employers for our book” “What do employers really want?”

We asked them about the strangest way they’d recruited someone.

The Director of one of Australia’s biggest manufacturing successes said that she had hired one person from a bus stop and one person from a service station. Both of them had no experience and both are now in management roles within her company.

There’s no simple moral to this story, but there are a few common themes.

All of the people I describe were active in ways that didn’t directly relate to their job search.

They were happy to talk to people and tell them what they wanted. They look trustworthy. They didn’t look like they’d sell their grandmother in her sleep 😉

My first client, by door knocking, was demonstrating things he could only ever claim to have on his resume – initiative and good communication skills.

My second client was an engaging listener.

My third client was prepared to do a number of things with one end goal, making herself more employable.

So if you do have no experience and you do need a job, one of the best things you can do is get out and get active.
Try to think of the ways your experience in the past can benefit your in the future.

If you have an iPhone download our new app, myPitch. There are real-life videos in there that show how you can pitch your experience to a potential employer in a very natural way.

Download myPitch here. The videos and examples that will be most relevant to you will be the graduate examples. Although they are coming from someone who is new to the work force, essentially they are good examples to anyone who wants to change direction.

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What to expect from a second grilling, sorry I meant job interview.

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

I had an interesting email today. My emailer wanted to know what she could expect  from a second interview. She had a first interview with her potential direct manager. The interview was reasonably casual and covered questions around why she wanted the role, the skills she could bring, her salary expectations and what the role involved. She was then invited in to a second interview with a large panel. She was worried about going over old ground with the first interviewer who was going to be on the panel.

So what could she expect from a second interview? My answer was this:

The first interview sounds like, as we say in the trade, a “screening” interview. The interviewer sizes you up for a broad match. Do your basic skills fit? Does what you want, match the company’s offerings in both the short and long term? How much money do they need to pay? Do they like you enough to push it any further?

The second interview if it’s with a panel has to be structured. More than two people in an interview, without some sort of a script, spells chaos.

To prepare for the second interview, I would go back to the basics. You’ll have insights from the first interview. But think about what you now know about the challenges of the role. Then come up with some really meaty examples to show you have the skills. Talk through your answers so you sound confident.

For a second interview like this you probably will have some of the same screening questions. So just be prepared to answer them again. Be consistent. The first interviewer will have briefed the others, but you don’t know what he or she has said.

Don’t think you can’t go over what you have said. But if they ask the same questions about what you want, add a bit more. You will have gained some insight from the first interviewer about the role. So you can preface any answer with that knowledge. For example: “I understand from my first discussion with so and so, that you offer abc in this role – I have had a further think about that and this appeals because xyz”

That way you’ve shown that you have listened to what’s been discussed.

Interview panel members always seem to ask at the end of the interview “do you have anything further to add?” (As if they haven’t grilled you enough!) Most interviewees forget to tell people that they actually want the role. Give your elevator pitch here, by all means. But don’t forget to tell the panel you’d like the role. And sound like you mean it!

Need to get ahead of the pack for your next interview?

Get our free e-book The 7 Deadly Sins to Avoid at Job Interview!

Deborah Barit wrote this book. She is one of Australia’s leading interview coaches.

To get your free e-book and some of our best interview tips direct to your inbox, simply click on this link.

Here’s what happy readers said about the e-book and interview tips:

“Deborah Barit is a very smart lady…She is good at figuring out what an employer is looking for. It’s like she has ESP, with her help in preparing, I found no surprises in a recent interview and I was prepared for every question….” Cathy, Leichhardt, NSW

“Because I read so many of your posts, I feel as if you were my personal employment coach. I start my new position in two weeks. I had so many obstacles to overcome and each day you posted a solution to my dilemma and how to improve my search. Thank you so much for your input and PLEASE continue to do what you do!”

Click here to get access to the e-book.

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Gone in seven seconds – the resume review

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

How do recruiters review your resume?

I really liked this article from Brad Remillard at Impact Hiring. Here he is really honest about how he, as a recruiter, reviews a resume. He says he doesn’t give a resume in 20 seconds to make an impact. He actually reviews an entire resume in 20 seconds. He gives you and your resume 5 – 7 seconds to pass the first cull.

Those numbers again. That’s 5 -7 seconds, per resume, to make an impact. Twenty seconds for a full review.

If Brad is reviewing hundreds of resumes, he’s looking first up for a quick match with what the client wants, who you are and what you offer. Here is his order of knock out blows:

  • Location – you need to be close to the role location
  • Industry background
  • Your role/ function
  • Your title or your level
  • How recent is your experience?
  • Education
  • Turnover – are you a job hopper?
  • Is your resume a functional resume, rather than presented chronologically? Brad doesn’t like functional resumes, as he suggests you’re hiding something
  • Format – spelling, grammar, consistent presentation

So if you want to pass the recruiter resume review test you have to make it easy for them to make a quick decision on your resume. That’s the obvious message dealt with.

The other thing to think about here is that hiring someone is a risky and expensive business. Recruiter’s fees often start at 10% of your salary. Technology now allows for many employers to do their own hiring easily. So often they are asking recruiters to be their eyes and ears in the market beyond what they can do themselves.

If the employer is paying a high fee, what they want from a recruiter is the ideal match for their requirements. So if the recruiter can’t find this through an advertisement, instead of broadening the net of skills they’ll consider, the recruiter may simply head hunt. It’s a recruitment “truism” that the best people are working.

Generally this means, no matter how confident you are that you can do the role the recruiter advertises, if you are not the ideal match on your paper resume, you will find it very difficult to convince them. This will be even harder if there are several people in the mix who are a closer match.

A recruitment consultant will generally offer their client a guarantee that you are the right person for that role. If you leave the role within three months, they attribute that to a poor hiring decision, perhaps you are not skilled enough for the role. Beyond three months your reasons for leaving may have more to do with something internal to the company. The recruiter has sold their recruitment skills to the employer.  So they may be even more conservative in hiring than the employer would be. Your match for the role is the recruiter’s reputation

What I am trying to say, in a long winded way, is that you present less risk to the recruiter if you are already doing a role close to their advertised role, or a large part of your role covers that. The guarantee that the recruiter offers their client, is that they will replace you, if you don’t work out. They’ve earned their fee once they will not earn it again if they have to replace you.

So what’s the take out here?

If you are applying for a role, make sure your resume reflects what’s advertised. Make sure you include the key words and phrases. Use recruitment consultants as just one part of your job searching strategy as they don’t hold all the jobs in the market. If you can call the recruiter, try to connect with the recruiter, so they can see you are human, not just a static piece of paper.

Don’t take it so personally if you can’t convince them to look at you. The entire formal recruitment process is built around minimising risk.

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Social Media Background Checks

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

There is such a lot of talk around about social media background checks, where employers check your profile out on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like. But how many do, and how seriously do they take the information they can access, and more to the point, what are they actually looking for?

I recently co-authored “What do employers really want?” with James Evangelidis, a very good friend of mine. We were curious so we asked a few questions of a number of employers we interviewed. Here’s what they said:

Employer 1

 

Q:  Do you check people out on social media and what do you think when you do?

A: “This is the big mistake of the younger generation. Everything is fair game and they need to learn that if I saw behavior that I felt didn’t fit with the team, or I discovered things about them that reflected negatively on their employer, or there is a pattern of behaviour that’s likely to lead to work performance issues, then they won’t be getting the job. People should assume that I am checking them out.”

Employer 2

Q: As part of your hiring procedure, do you routinely check people out on MySpace or Facebook?

A: No we don’t check

Q What if you became aware of something that was compromising an employee on a public forum?

A: “If it was a public facing position then we would have to talk to them about it because undoubtedly it could be seen publicly. To a degree what people get up to in their own time is up to them, but when that private persona interferes with that corporate requirement then there has to be an intervention, especially if they are representing the company as part of that corporate persona. Fundamentally I don’t really care. Can they do their job? Are they able to do their job? Will they do the job? Are they in a compromising position? If they are not part of the public face (or they are not seen as representing) the company, then I don’t have a problem with it.”

Q:  Do you check people out on social media and what do you think when you do?

Employer 3

A: “I wouldn’t want an employee’s personal life to be reflecting on the business, especially because we are a public company. For me it’s about having the right appearance!. We check potential employees on Facebook etc. It’s really important people be aware of this because the internet is so powerful.”

Employer 4

A: “We don’t do those sorts of checks. If something came to my attention of course we would look at it. Then I think you would be bound to take those things into consideration, generally however I think these are a social tool, not a business tool.”

Employer 5

A: “No I have never thought of it, I will normally, depending how long they have been in their previous employment, ring up three of their previous employers.”

Employer 6

Q: What would you do if you found something negative about an employee on social media?

A: “I would put it on the table in front of them and ask them about it. You would at least give this person the opportunity to explain. We haven’t been checking these forums as a matter of course, but we are doing in more often, particularly with contractors or recruitment consultants.”

So what’s the point I am trying to make here?

Yes you will be checked out.

Always assume that anyone checking you out is making a subjective judgment, what some people thinks fits with the team, others may think is bad form.

Always assume that whoever is checking as part of a reference check will only have a partial picture of what you’ve been up to, good or bad. They will never know the context until they meet you, and depending what it is, they may not even be able to question you about what they saw to raise their eye-brows.

While by law employers are not able to discriminate, how would you know if you missed out on a job based on something they personally didn’t like?

You could liken this stuff to simple reference checking, but it is reference checking on steroids, given that employers can gather a lot more personal information than they’d ever be able to ask a referee.

On Thomas Shaw’s blog recently, he posted information about an application that will allow you to click to allow employers and recruiters access to your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. You could soon find them soon on careers sites.

One click is all simple and convenient, but when friends can do things like post unflattering photos of you on the wild night of your high school break up, would you really want your Facebook profile to be your resume?

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Mind your job interview (body) language

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

How important is body language in interviews? You’ll read in a lot of studies or guides around presentation skills that say it is the most important thing to your success, that words account for 7% of meaning, tone of voice counts for 38% of meaning and body language accounts for 55%.

These are pretty startling statistics, and they do make you sit up and take notice. But it’s a pretty bizarre statement when you think about it, as this mob points out. They suggest that if we derive 93% of meaning from things other than words, then we wouldn’t need to say anything in order to be understood.

How important is body language in interview?

I could write a prescriptive list on where to place your hands, how many hand gestures to use, how long your handshake should be and how much eye contact is acceptable, but then I would have to write an equally long list about where the opposite is true.

Some interviews are more formal, some are not. Rules for one person, may not work for another. If you are in an interview in a formal setting to start gesticulating wildly and rearranging the plant pots to make your point, may not win you brownie points. But then, someone interviewing you in a coffee shop might love the way that you pick up the spoon and wave it around.

How do you manage your body language in interview?

I try to keep it simple.

When I coach people on interview skills, I look to see whether what my client is saying is consistent with how they are saying it, and what they look like when they are saying it.

Think of it this way. I’ll never believe a footballer’s scripted and well worded TV apology after he’s been bad on a big night out. And the reason I won’t is that the words are often not his. He’ll be reading them out. His tone will be monotonous and he won’t look at the camera. He’d have more luck with me if he looked me in the eye, put his hand on his heart, and said three words: “I’m really sorry.”

It’s the same with interviews. If you are using examples that excite you then this comes out in your tone, your body language plus your face lights up when you talk. It’s written all over your body without you even thinking about it. Everything lines up and that’s when people believe you.

I see getting body language “right” in interview as more about confidence in yourself, the right preparation and a desire to be in the interview rather than going through the motions.

If your body language is not right for your interviewer, it’s possibly not right for the job.

PS:  If you’re curious about the body language research, it’s by Albert Mehrabian It’s derived from some experiments he where he looked and attitudes and feelings. Here’s what he states on his website: “Total Liking = 7% Verbal Liking + 38% Vocal Liking + 55% Facial Liking. Please note that this and other equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e., like, dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable.

If you think about the applicability of this research to an interview setting, think about this when you start to talk about how much you’d like the job. A long scripted spiel may have a whole lot less impact than you emphatically saying “I’d really like this job”

Need to get ahead of the pack for your next interview?

Get our free e-book The 7 Deadly Sins to Avoid at Job Interview!

Deborah Barit wrote this book. She is one of Australia’s leading interview coaches.

To get your free e-book and some of our best interview tips direct to your inbox, simply click on this link.

Here’s what happy readers said about the e-book and interview tips:

“Deborah Barit is a very smart lady…She is good at figuring out what an employer is looking for. It’s like she has ESP, with her help in preparing, I found no surprises in a recent interview and I was prepared for every question….” Cathy, Leichhardt, NSW

“Because I read so many of your posts, I feel as if you were my personal employment coach. I start my new position in two weeks. I had so many obstacles to overcome and each day you posted a solution to my dilemma and how to improve my search. Thank you so much for your input and PLEASE continue to do what you do!”

Click here to get access to the e-book.

{ 12 comments }

More weak (and pesky) resume words

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

Avoid these weak resume words

I really loved this post by the Avid Careerist, Donna Svei. She writes on one of those pesky weak resume words: “utilize”. As Donna says, we never “utilize” the word “utilize” when we speak, so why should we “utilize” it on a resume?

Good point. We use this language when we are trying to sound impressive on our resumes, we don’t know what we should put, or where we reflect the cloudy language we often find in position descriptions.

One application I wrote a few months ago asked that the candidate have “high level legal experience”. The role was for a lawyer. We had to check with the panel convener about what this meant. “High level – meant running a case, from the first meeting with a client, to making final recommendations”. So now we know and I’m glad we checked.

Like Donna I have a few resume pests of my own.

outcomes

agreed outcomes

liaised

in order to

facilitate

responsible for

actioned

address

behaviours

Have a look at this post on action words for resumes, if you are in any way confused.

Read Donna’s full post here

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